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- Young Hoactzins
- Archæopteryx
- Thespesius, a Common Herbivorous Dinosaur of the Cretaceous
- A Hind Leg of the Great Brontosaurus, the Largest of the Dinosaurs
- A Single Vertebra of Brontosaurus
- Skeleton of Triceratops
- The Horned Ceratosaurus, a Carnivorous Dinosaur
- Skull of Ceratosaurus
- Skull of Phororhacos Compared with that of the Race-horse Lexington
- Leg of a Horse Compared with that of the Giant Moa
- The Three Giants, Phororhacos, Moa, Ostrich
- Skeleton of the Modern Horse and of His Eocene Ancestor
- The Development of the Horse
- Skeleton of the Mammoth in the Royal Museum of St. Petersburg
- The Mammoth as Engraved by a Primitive Artist on a Piece of Mammoth Tusk
- Tooth of Mastodon and of Mammoth
- The Missourium of Koch, from a Tracing of the Figure Illustrating Koch's Description
- The Mastodon
- Bronze Age
The British were able to produce a certain coarse material from the flax which they had but lately learnt to grow, so by now they were not wholly dependent on the skins of animals for clothing. - The gigantic three-horned Reptile, Triceratops
The gigantic three-horned Reptile, Triceratops, as large as an Elephant, found in Jurassic strata in North America. A model of the skeleton may be seen in the Natural History Museum in London. - The oldest fossil fish known—discovered in the Upper Silurian strata of Scotland, and named Birkenia by Professor Traquair
The oldest fossil fish known—discovered in the Upper Silurian strata of Scotland, and named Birkenia by Professor Traquair. - Drawing of the skull and lower jaw of the Meritherium, discovered by Dr. Andrews in the Upper Eocene of the Fayum Desert.
Drawing of the skull and lower jaw of the Meritherium, discovered by Dr. Andrews in the Upper Eocene of the Fayum Desert. The shape of the skull and proportions of face and jaw are like those of an ordinary hoofed mammal such as the pig; but the cheek-teeth are similar to those of the Mastodon, and whilst the full complement of teeth is present in the front of the upper jaw, we can distinguish the big tusk-like incisor which alone survives on each side in Palæomastodon, Mastodon, and the elephants, as the great pair of tusks. - Neolithic or New Stone Age Man
The Neolithic or New Stone Age: Circa 10,000 B.C. The people of this period constituted a fifth race of mankind, of moderate stature and slender proportions. Those who resided on the western side of the island now known as Great Britain were dark, and of the Iberian type. Those on the eastern side were fair, and very like the Gauls. - Cro Magnon
Circa 35,000-15,000 B.C. This date, 35,000 B.C., is given as the end of the Early Paleolithic Age and beginning of the Late Paleolithic Age. A fourth race, the Cro Magnon or " True Man " Type, lived during this period, and was akin to the Eskimo of the present day. These people occupied the cave-dwellings of their predecessors, but led a much freer life in the open. - Eoanthropos
A second race of Subman, named " Eoanthropos " or " Dawn Man," was in existence (circa) 110,000 B.C. Their only weapons were branches torn from the trees - Pithecanthropos Erectus
The first race of Man (circa 550,000 B.c.) is called the "Pithecanthropos Erectus," or Ape Man. They were powerfully built individuals, with low foreheads, prominent bony ridges above the eyes, and retreating chins. Their forearms were heavy and clumsy, their thigh-bones bent and their shin-bones short, so they must have been bow-legged and awkward in gait. This type of human being became differentiated from animals because development of the faculty of primitive speech enabled them to sustain thought and created memory. - Primitive Bread Making
Take, for instance, the art of making bread, which was probably practised by the earlier races in some such manner as that represented in the figure. , wherein is depicted the process employed by certain savage tribes at the present day. Rude as the process is—and it consist only in spreading the paste, made of flour and water, on a series of flat stones which have been heated in a fire—its employment betoken the knowledge of a certain number of the facts of nature. It required the experience of perhaps many ages to impart the knowledge of other fads by which the originally .rude process became improved. This progress of an art, from its rudest to its more advanced state, doe not necessarily imply an advance in science. - Primitive Sledge
An early primitive sledge - Mammoth Hunt
To pierce the skin of one of the large animals, such as a mastodon or mammoth, the hunters had to be close to the powerful beast. They hurled or jabbed their spears at the animal, and tried to confuse and immobilize their prey. Perhaps several hunters surrounded an isolated animal waving their arms and distracting it while one or two others speared it. If the animal was wounded, the hunters would have tracked it until it became very weak or went to water to drink. Even a mastodon, wounded and exhausted, or mired in the mud of a shallow lake, would have been relatively easy game for a small group of experienced hunters. - A hunter using an atlatl
Dogs may have been kept as pets, and may have helped in hunting. Meso-Indians developed many new hunting and fishing techniques. They used fishhooks, traps, and nets for catching fish and other small animals, and they used a new weapon called the atlatl (pronounced at′lat′l) to help kill their most important prey, deer. An atlatl was made from a flattish, two-foot long piece of wood and was used as a spear-thrower. It had a hook, made of bone or antler, attached on one end and a hand grip carved on the other end. A stone, clay, or shell weight was sometimes attached toward the hooked end to increase the force of the throw, or perhaps only for decoration. A spear was rested on the atlatl with the end of the spear shaft inserted into the atlatl hook. The hunter held the atlatl grip and the middle of the spear in the same hand, then he hurled the spear from the atlatl. The atlatl acted as an extension of his arm, giving extra power and accuracy to the throw. - Prehistoric Whistle
A musical relic has recently been exhumed in the department of Dordogne in France, which was constructed in an age when the fauna of France included the reindeer, the rhinoceros, and the mammoth, the hyæna, the bear, and the cave-lion. It is a small bone somewhat less than two inches in length, in which is a hole, evidently bored by means of one of the little flint knives which men used before acquaintance with the employment of metal for tools and weapons. Many of these flints were found in the same place with the bones. Only about half a dozen of the bones, of which a considerable number have been exhumed, possess the artificial hole. - Pariasaurus - An Extinct Vegetarian Triassic Reptile
Total length about 9 feet. (Remains found in Cape Colony, South Africa.) - Triceratops - A Huge Extinct Reptile
(From remains found in Cretaceous strata of Wyoming, U.S.A.) This Dinosaur, about the size of a large rhinoceros, had a huge three-horned skull with a remarkable bony collar over the neck. But, as in many other cases, its brain was so small that it could have passed down the spinal canal in which the spinal cord lies. Perhaps this partly accounts for the extinction of giant reptiles. - Skeleton of an Extinct Flightless Toothed Bird, Hesperornis
The bird was five or six feet high, something like a swimming ostrich, with a very powerful leg but only a vestige of a wing. There were sharp teeth in a groove. The modern divers come nearest to this ancient type. - The Skull and Brain-Case of Pithecanthropus
The java ape-man, as restored. By J. H. Mcgregor from the scanty remains The restoration shows the low, retreating forehead and the prominent eyebrow ridges. - A Mammoth Drawn on the Wall of the Font-de-Gaume Cavern
The mammoth age was in the Middle Pleistocene, while Neanderthal Men still flourished, probably far over 30,000 years ago. - A Grazing Bison, Delicately and Carefully Drawn, Engraved on a Wall of the Altamira Cave, Northern Spain
This was the work of a Reindeer Man or Cromagnard, in the Upper or Post-Glacial Pleistocene, perhaps 25,000 years ago. Firelight must have been used in making these cave drawings and engravings. - Nautilus
A section through the Pearly Nautilus, Nautilus pompilius, common from Malay to Fiji. The shell is often about 9 inches long. The animal lives in the last chamber only, but a tube (S) runs through the empty chambers, perforating the partitions (SE). The bulk of the animal is marked VM; the eye is shown at E; a hood is marked H; round the mouth there are numerous lobes (L) bearing protrusible tentacles, some of which are shown. When the animal is swimming near the surface the tentacles radiate out in all directions, and it has been described as "a shell with something like a cauliflower sticking out of it." The Pearly Nautilus is a good example of a conservative type, for it began in the Triassic Era. But the family of Nautiloids to which it belongs illustrates very vividly what is meant by a dwindling race. The Nautiloids began in the Cambrian, reached their golden age in the Silurian, and began to decline markedly in the Carboniferous. There are 2,500 extinct or fossil species of Nautiloids, and only 4 living to-day. - The walking-fish or mud-skipper (Periophthalmus)
It skips about by means of its strong pectoral fins on the mud-flats; it jumps from stone to stone hunting small shore-animals; it climbs up the roots of the mangrove-trees. The close-set eyes protrude greatly and are very mobile. The tail seems to help in respiration. - Genealogical tree of animals
Showing in order of evolution the general relations of the chief classes into which the world of living things is divided. This scheme represents the present stage of our knowledge, but is admittedly provisional. - The Archæopteryx
(After William Leche of Stockholm.) A good restoration of the oldest known bird, Archæopteryx (Jurassic Era). It was about the size of a crow; it had teeth on both jaws; it had claws on the thumb and two fingers; and it had a long lizard-like tail. But it had feathers, proving itself a true bird. - Palæomastodon
Restored model of the skull and lower jaw of the ancestral elephant Palæomastodon from the upper Eocene strata of the Fayoum Desert, Egypt. It shows the six molar teeth of the upper and lower jaw (left side), the tusk-like upper incisors and the large chisel-like lower incisors in front. - Myotragus
Drawing of the skull of the rat-toothed goat, Myotragus—the new extinct beast discovered in limestone fissures in the island of Majorca by Miss Bate. 1. Side view of the skull and lower jaw. 2. Appearance of the two rat-like teeth as seen when the end of the lower jaw is viewed from above. - molars of elephants
The crowns of three "grinders" or molars of elephants compared. a is that of an extinct mastodon with four transverse ridges; b is that of the African elephant with nine ridges in use and ground flat; c is that of the mammoth with sixteen narrow ridges in use—the rest, some eight in number, are at the left hand of the figure and not yet in use. - Head of the early ancestor of elephants
Head of the early ancestor of elephants—Meritherium—as it appeared in life. Observe the absence of a trunk and the enlarged front tooth in the upper jaw, which is converted in later members of the elephant-stock or line of descent into the great tusk. (After a drawing by Prof. Osborne.) - Head of the ancestral elephant
Head of the ancestral elephant—Palæomastodon—as it appeared in life. It shows, as compared with the earlier ancestor, an elongation both of the snout and the lower jaws. The tusk in the upper jaw has increased in size, but is still small as compared with that of later elephants. (After a drawing by Prof. Osborne.) - American Mastadon
A reconstruction of the extinct American mastodon (Mastodon ohioticus) from a drawing by Prof. Osborne. Other extinct species of mastodon are found in Europe. - A Reindeer Age Masterpiece
These late Palæolithic people not only drew remarkably well for our information, and with an increasing skill as the centuries passed, but they have also left us other information about their lives in their graves. They buried. They buried their dead, often with ornaments, weapons, and food; they used a lot of colour in the burial, and evidently painted the body. From that one may infer that they painted their bodies during life. Paint was a big fact in their lives. They were inveterate painters; they used black, brown, red, yellow, and white pigments, and the pigments they used endure to this day in the caves of France and Spain. Of all modern races, none have shown so pictorial a disposition; the nearest approach to it has been among the American Indians. - A Menhir of the Neolithic Period
A Carved Statue (“Menhir”) of the Neolithic Period—a Contrast to the Freedom and Vigour of Palæolithic Art. - Time-chart 6000 B.C. to A.D.
Time-chart 6000 B.C. to A.D. - The Sub-Man Pithecanthropus
Possible Appearance of the Sub-man Pithecanthropus. The face, jaws, and teeth are mere guess work. The creature may have been much less human looking than this. - Some Oligocene Mammals
Some Oligocene Mammals - Restoration of a Lake Dwelling
One fruitful source of knowledge about Neolithic life comes from Switzerland, and was first revealed by the very dry winter of 1854, when the water level of one of the lakes, sinking to an unheard-of lowness, revealed the foundations of prehistoric pile dwellings of the Neolithic and early Bronze Ages, built out over the water after the fashion of similar homes that exist to-day in Celebes and elsewhere. Not only were the timbers of those ancient platforms preserved, but a great multitude of wooden, bone, stone, and earthenware utensils and ornaments, remains of food and the like, were found in the peaty accumulations below them. Even pieces of net and garments have been recovered. Similar lake dwellings existed in Scotland, Ireland, and elsewhere—there are well-known remains at Glastonbury in Somersetshire; in Ireland lake dwellings were inhabited from prehistoric times up to the days when O’Neil of Tyrone was fighting against the English before the plantation of Scotch colonists to replace the Irish in Ulster in the reign of James I of England. These lake villages had considerable defensive value, and there was a sanitary advantage in living over flowing water. - Reindeer Age Engravings and Carvings
Reindeer Age Engravings and Carvings - Reindeer Age Articles
Reindeer Age Articles - Pottery from Lake Dwellings
The milk, if they did use it (and, no doubt, in that case sour curdled milk also, but not well-made cheese and butter), they must have kept in earthenware pots, for they had pottery, though it was roughly hand-made pottery and not the shapely product of the potter’s wheel. - Neolithic Implements
Finally, perhaps as early as 3000 years ago in Europe, and even{v1-107} earlier in Asia Minor, men began to smelt iron. Once smelting was known to men, there is no great marvel in the finding of iron. They smelted iron by blowing up a charcoal fire, and wrought it by heating and hammering. They produced it at first in comparatively small pieces; its appearance worked a gradual revolution{v1-108} in weapons and implements; but it did not suffice to change the general character of men’s surroundings. Much the same daily life that was being led by the more settled Neolithic men 10,000 years ago was being led by peasants in out-of-the-way places all over Europe at the beginning of the eighteenth century. People talk of the Stone Age, the Bronze Age, and the Iron Age in Europe, but it is misleading to put these ages as if they were of equal importance in history. Much truer is it to say that there was: (1) An Early Palæolithic Age, of vast duration; (2) a Later Palæolithic Age, that lasted not a tithe of the time; and (3) the Age of Cultivation, the age of the white men in Europe, which began 10,000 or at most 12,000 years ago, of which the Neolithic Period was the beginning, and which is still going on. - Neanderthal Man
They probably used a multitude and variety of wooden implements also; they had probably learnt much about the shapes of objects and the use of different shapes from wood, knowledge which they afterwards applied to stone; but none of this wooden material has survived; we can only speculate about its forms and uses. As the weather hardened to its maximum of severity, the Neanderthal men, already it would seem acquainted with the use of fire, began to seek shelter under rock ledges and in caves—and so leave remains behind them. Hitherto they had been accustomed to squat in the open about the fire, and near their water supply. But they were sufficiently intelligent to adapt themselves to the new and harder conditions. - Miocene Mammals
The Miocene (with living species still in a minority) was the great age of mountain building, and the general temperature was falling. - Map of Europe 50,000 Years Ago
Possible Map of Europe 50,000 Years Ago